1912–13 Volume 37 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

246 THE SCROLLOscar H. Cheney, Phi Gamma Delta, chairman of a committee appointedto prepare forms of uniform chapter accounting, presenteda report which was adopted, and enough copies of the same wereordered printed to supply all of the chapters of the fraternities represented.William Raimond Baird, Beta Theta Pi, chairman of a committeeappointed in 1911 to report in regard to local associations of fraternitiesto regulate rushing, presented a printed report of 47 pages,which gives information about rushing methods at 78 institutions.At 26 of these institutions local conferences have made rushingagreements, and the report quotes or summarizes such agreements.The following is quoted from the report:We believe that if each fraternity in this conference should through itsofficials urge its several chapters to actively promote and enthusiastically assistin the organization of local conferences, they would speedily be formed everywhere.It is plainly evident that unless they are so formed and unless theyremedy the admitted evils of rushing, that the college authorities will assumecontrol of such matters and put such limitations upon the activities of the differentfraternities as to cripple their membership and interfere with theirprogress.The committee was continued, with authority to prepare a simpleform of constitution and by-laws for local interfraternity conferences,and to furnish sufficient copies of the same to tlie general officersof the various fraternities for distribution among chapters.Albert S. Bard, Chi Psi, chairman of a committee appointed in1911 to report in regard to the relations between college authoritiesand fraternities, presented a printed report of 32 pages, condensingthe replies received from 75 institutions to the questionnaire dealingwith the extent of faculty supervision over chapters, faculty cooperationwith chapters in respect to discipline and scholarship, andthe relative scholastic rank of fraternity men and non-fraternity men.Referring to statistics which have been published, showing that insome of the larger universities the scholarship of fraternity mencompared unfavorably with that of nonfraternity men, the reportsays:That the fraternity is the cause of inferior scholarship, or, at most, of morethan an inconsiderable proportion of it, or that the men in the fraternitieswould not be below the others in average scholarship were the fraternities outof existence, does not seem to be show^, if, indeed, any conceivable data couldform a sound basis for such a conclusion. The testimony from the collegesthemselves, on the other hand, is overwhelming that the fraternity has repeatedlybeen in concrete instances a valuable aid to scholarship, and that thispotentiality may be, in time and with attention, developed.The report declares the belief of the committee that "it is theduty of the college to make use of every available means to influenceand stimulate the development of every student," and that no college"should fail to make use of the fraternity group as an instrumentof education." The report further says:Two systems of faculty advisers are in vogue, one of advisers to the individualstudents, and the other of advisers to the self-constituted groups of students,in most instances the fraternities. In neither case should the responsibilities